HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015 01-29 Tool of friendship helps partners build bike-related business PIONEER PRESS Tool of friendship helps partners build bike-related business - TwinCities.com Page 1 of 3
Tool of friendship helps partners build bike-related business
By George Beran Pioneer Press
Updated:01/27/2015 05:06:46 PM CST JAN 2 9 2015 TwinCities.com
Park Tool Co. prospers on a bicycle built for two.
Arthur Engstrom, 60, and Howard Hawkins, 57, have worked side by side as partners in the �
bicycle business for 34 years.
The lifelong friends, who grew up on St. Paul's East Side, ran a top-selling Schwinn
dealership for many years before turning exclusively to the manufacture of bike tools in
1981.
Since then, their company, Park Tool, has become the premier producer of bike tools in the
United States.
Park expects sales to rise $1.2 million or 31 percent to about $5 million in the year that will
end Sept. 30. The growing firm employs 26 at the 16,500-square-foot plant it opened a year
ago at 3535 International Drive in Vadnais Heights.
Forty percent of company revenues come from the sale of bicycle repair stands featuring a
Park patented clamp that literally turned the bike world upside down.
The clamp grips a bicycle frame and rotates it 360 degrees, allowing it to be fixed more
easily. Without it, a bike standing upside down on handlebars was tough to fix because hand
brakes touched the ground and locked a wheel.
Engstrom and Hawkins developed the clamp in 1963, seven years after they opened a
bicycle shop at Seventh and White Bear avenues in Hazel Park.
On the heels of their success in filling the need for an efficient bike repair stand, they started
making top quality hand tools for repairing the bikes.
Engstrom says the company tries to make tools that look good, work well and feel
comfortable in the hand.
"We want customers to feel pride in ownership," he says.
Altogether, Park sells 127 kinds of tools to wholesale distributors in the United States and 15
foreign countries. Exports are growing and constitute about 10 percent of sales.
The products range from $3 wrenches to $400 heavy-duty repair stands used by bike shops.
The "quick action clamp" appears on 11 models ofi the repair stand sold to cyclists and bike
repair shops.
"Our name is very well known in the bicycle industry," Hawkins said. "But we're a little
lacking in consumer name recognition."
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When they started the business,Engstrom,then a railroad mechanic,and Hawkins,a
welding supply salesman,borrowed$5,000 from Engstrom's father and$5,000 from a
retiring bike dealer to set up shop. Now they spend twice that much to design a small tool.
Hawkins recalls using$65 from his last salesman's paycheck to put cash in the till of the new
business. It made keys,tested radio tubes and sold ice skates in addition to bike sales and
repairs.
Before long,the Hazel Park shop expanded into three buildings as retail bike sales and
repairs grew and tool sales took off.
"The tool business was growing even though we didn't give it much effort,"says Hawkins.
Needing more space,they moved to Maplewood in 1966,opening the Park Schwinn store
near Highway 36 and White Bear Avenue.They soon added branches in Mendota Heights
and downtown St.Paul.
After getting by without titles for 13 years,the partners flipped a coin in 1969 and Engstrom
wound up president, Hawkins secretary-treasurer.
"I got the title, Howard got the work,"Engstrom joshes.Hawkins'son Eric is the company
sales manager.
Park Schwinn regularly finished among the top 10 Schwinn dealers in the country,despite
the Minnesota climate. In 1978 it surprised the industry by leading the country in Schwinn
sales.
Although Hawkins liked the retail business,Engstrom didn't mind leaving it when the pair
decided in 1981 to seil the retail stores.They wanted to concentrate on the tool business,
which then was located at the rear of the Maplewood store.
They found that as more adults took up cycling and bikes grew more sophisticated with
three-speed and 10-speed models,new repair tools were needed.
"We found we didn't have tools to repair the new models,"Engstrom said.
During its first years in business,Park Tool kept busy making tools mostly for bike repair
shops and Schwinn dealers. But in recent years,more and more bicycle owners are buying
color-coded spoke wrenches,bike stands and frame straighteners.
"Some people have enough tools at home to start a shop,"said Engstrom.
At the Vadnais Heights plant,the company packages,welds and machines products.Some
parts and tools are produced by contract manufacturers to its specifications.
"We're not removed from our people,"says Engstrom.The company works four 10-hour
days a week.
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The partners talk to bike manufacturers and customers to learn of design changes and
product suggestions. "Most of our product ideas come from in-house design," says Hawkins.
Customers proposed three Park products, including a chain-cleaning device and a plastic
tool to be introduced this year that will remove a tire, compress and rerail a chain without
any grease getting on a mechanic's fingers.
Although the company pioneered the commercial repair stand for shop use, it admits to a lag
in developing a stand for the consumer market.
"We were asleep at the switch," said Engstrom, noting that a competitor beat it to the market
by one year with a workstand that included rotating jaws to move the bike around.
Park needed time to develop a lightweight stand that could be folded and put away in a
closet. After two years it solved the problem, producing a $95.99 workstand that is stealing
market share from the competitor's $87.99 model.
To build its product name, Park advertises in cycling magazines and sponsors three teams
of inechanics in 185 races held around the world.
After 34 years as partners, the men say that respect for each other's interests is a key to
success. Both are born-again Christians who get along well and confide in each other.
Hawkins, who lives in Grant Township, rides a bike regularly with his wife, Donna. He has
logged 600 miles this year. Engstrom, a Maplewood resident, doesn't ride much any more,
preferring to help his wife, Margie, in the flower garden. Each couple has three daughters
and a son.
,
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